Feature Article

MasterCard Nods to Gemalto for Mobile Payment Solution

The struggle for dominance in the mobile payments space has as much to do with reach as it does with the experience itself—or possibly even more. Sure, consumer preference matters, but if the mobile payment platform of choice doesn’t have the support of major credit card providers, even the best experience won’t save it. As such, the news that Gemalto is the first mobile payment vendor to receive full MasterCard approval for a complete cloud-based payment (CBP) solution is significant, to say the least.

This MasterCard certification encompasses not only Gemalto’s CBP server platforms, but the payment software running on cardholders’ mobile phones as well. As with any certification, this one is granted following extensive testing, namely functional evaluation and security testing. The certified Gemalto components perform the functions defined by MasterCard as Account Enablement System (AES), Credentials Management System (CMS), Transaction Management System (TMS) and Mobile Payment Application (MPA).

Earlier in January, Gemalto introduced support for new standards from major credit card networks for its SafeNet Luna Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Payment Hardware Security Module (HSM). In this case, the standards are for secure implementations of contactless payments with mobile phones.

"The consumer lifestyle is increasingly defined by the ubiquitous smart phones and tablets and there's an ever-growing appetite for secure mobile payment," said Jean-Claude Deturche, senior vice president of Mobile Financial Services for Gemalto. "Gemalto's MasterCard-approved suite of Cloud-based payment solutions opens another flexible and highly efficient route into this fast-growing market, securely located under the broad umbrella of our proven Trusted Services Hub, the Allynis TSH."

The Gemalto suite of products enables banks to seamlessly issue digital versions of their payment cards to their host card emulation (HCE)-based payment apps, along with partner wallets from device manufacturers, mobile operating system providers and mobile network operators. Issuers and processors can opt for a full outsourced cloud service operated within Gemalto’s own data centers, or an on-premises instance.